Why mobile search was inevitable from 1997

Way back in May 1997, AOL finalized some amazing new technology based around its so called “OSCAR” protocolﾠwhich eventually became AOL’s flagship instant messaging system.

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Why was this so amazing?

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Well, it may seem something which we all take for granted in the new millenium, but at the time it was revolutionary for users to be able to communicate in real time. Furthermore, this was rolled out on a commercial scale and it proved to be a real game changer, not just for internet usage but also for broader human communication.

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Early dominance

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AOL’s Instant Messaging system became known simply as “AIM” and it completely dominated the market in the early 2000s. This tells us a number of things:

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1. The developed world was eager to be able to communicate in real time, both for social and commercial reasons.

2. Business was desirous of shorter “feedback loops”, as a means of staff development and of shortening their sales cycles.

3. Collaboration in fields such as mathematics, science, education and politics became much easier, albeit creating at the same time some inherent risks.ﾠ

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Demise

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By 2009, however, use of AIM had largely become non-existent. This was due to a number of reasons:

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1. Ageing technology: as processing speeds and the complexity of computing accelerated, so did demands on what was expected of AIM and its competition. New operating systems were tried, noteably the AOL XMPP Gateway. This allowsﾠthird party messaging networks to exchange messages and presence information with the AIM service. Use of the gateway is currently limited to select partners, and AOL state that parties interested in using the XMPP gateway should contact them.ﾠUse of AOL’s XMPP Gateway was and is governed by proprietary terms of service.ﾠCommercially, this was perceived as restrictive and gradually other solutions became more popular.

2. Portability: the advent of mobile phones with 3G rendered the need to be at an office or desktop unneccessary when wanting to instant message, whether by SMS or other means.ﾠ

3. Apple: Apple products surged in popularity, wiping many competitors off the map including this technology.

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What next?

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Looking back, it was clear that there was a desire for real time mobile communication technologies. It was inevitable, even in 1997, that technology would deliver solutions to this and the fascinating question now is how this trend will continue. It is not clear, however, that we have seen the last of AIM. Take a look at the following video for more details.

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